Silver Wings (Lugia)
by Silverus-Avian
Summary: Lugia and his brother have been protecting the Whirl Islands for centuries, their combined might bringing great peace among the archipelago's residents. One day however, they will face a challenge that not only threatens them, but the future of Pokémon in general.
1. I: The Limit

Silence.

The sea was always silent at this time. The sky was dark, the air cold and the ocean depths gloomy and empty. In minutes before dawn, the creatures of the night were asleep, those of the day yet to awake. A lonely place where one could quite easily lose themselves to the world. But, despite all this, there was one thing he was after which only here could be found.

_Freedom_.

High above the wispy clouds the silhouette of a legend arose and spread its wings, the first glint of the sun striking its shining feathers. The biting cold did not deter him, nor did the thin, untenable air. He did not obey the sky; it obeyed him. And now was the time for him to prove it.

He opened his dark, jewel-like eyes as he stopped for a moment at the apex of his ascent. Taking a second to process the view below him, he inhaled calmly and closed his beak, stretching out his body as the wind began to run past him once again. It was time to be free.

Slowly at first, he tucked his wings back towards him, feeling the air begin to roll into them and push them upwards; the sensation of lift never failing to provide a rush to his senses as his eyes narrowed and he let gravity take control. In just a few seconds the serenity of still air had been transformed into an accelerating roar of noise, growing ever louder with every moment. The powers of nature were great - he would be foolish not to accept that - and at that moment it was only wise to let it take him where he wanted.

The misty white of the clouds that once stood miles below him quickly approached, filling his vision as he planned the next few moments meticulously in his head. His mind brimmed with confidence as he mentally grinned at the audacity of what he was about to achieve.

This was _it_! This was where he would succeed. _The Limit_.

Humanity called it the '_speed of sound_'. A velocity so great that not even _air itself_ could surpass it. His entire life he had been told it was impossible. That no living thing had ever - or could ever - claim it. No matter your form, no matter your power and no matter your ingenuity. It was _The_ _Limit_. The limit of flight in nature.

But he wasn't buying it. To him, '_limit_' was just a word. And words could be overwritten.

This was not the first time he had attempted such a feat; his persistence was the only reason he had got this far and he knew it was the only way to reach his goals and ambitions. It was not an infinite resource, however, and he was committed to this being his final attempt. It was everything or nothing.

As he began to carve through the clouds, he felt the downwards force pulling on him steadily cease as nature arrived at its potential. It was time. He let his eyes close and focused on the air rushing around him, convincing himself that it was simply a physical item. _Malleable, controllable, exploitable_. It didn't need to hold him back.

Nothing held him back.

The great bird opened his eyes, now consumed in a blinding fire of blue as he let the psychic essence consume him. His silver wings began to glow with vibrance as he felt the sensation of air vanish across them. With just a simple thought crossing his mind, he felt himself accelerate at an enormous rate. A feeling of warmth spread across his body as he continued, faster and harder towards the blue below him. The ocean was clear now; he could see the wispy aqua currents swirling in its depths, topped by a mirror-like surface as the still air offered no interference. He was running out of sky.

_Just a little more..._ he thought, grimacing as he pushed himself even harder.

The space above him quickly felt cold and damp as the deafening scream of wind simultaneously became quiet and muffled. Peeking one eye behind him, he could see a snow-white cloud of vapour hovering above his back, swept back into a conical shape. _Transonic_. As he stared down at the water below him one last time, only one thought passed through his mind.

_I'm ready._

Roaring in defiance, he closed his eyes and focused all his energy into one last push. His wings glowing brighter than they ever had before, he was thrust forward with a great bout of force and - suddenly - time seemed to stop.

In unimaginably rapid succession, the ocean's surface lifted up momentarily before a deafening explosion of atmosphere sent it disappearing in all directions. Several miles away, a faint, distant boom reverberated through the sky, causing a small rock on a cliff ledge to shake for an instant before falling silent again. To the legendary bird, there was only utter silence. Opening his eyes again, he saw just oblivion.

His mind panicking, he rapidly snapped out of his psychic trance and lost all control, now at the mercy of the supersonic wind. Reacting instinctively, he lifted his wings in front of him and coiled as he awaited impending doom. Had he finally bitten off more than he could chew?

But it didn't arrive. Instead, the bird found two wings much like his own clutching him tightly on his sides. In a degree of confusion, he looked up and was immediately relieved. In front of him was the familiar sight of his brother, Lugia. He did not look happy.

"Lugia! How did you-" the bird said mentally to him before being interrupted; telepathy being the way in which they usually communicated.

"Do yourself a favour, Silverus, and _shut up_ until we get back." he snapped, turning away and angrily beating his wings into the air as he flew. Silverus' face dropped as he struggled to keep up with him, his body tired from the recent ordeal. He hadn't seen his brother this angry in a long time, so it was probably best he listened for once.


	2. II: Solstice

Silverus nudged a pebble around aimlessly along the floor of the cave with his foot as he steadily paced about, an expression of worry washing over his face. His body was still aching from the flight and he could feel his energy all but drained from him as he looked over again at Lugia standing solemnly at the entrance, staring out across the blue and green archipelago of his kingdom. He was almost identical to him - a great silver bird with long, slender wings, deep blue fins surrounding his dark brown eyes and lining his back and the tip of his tail. Larger in stature he had always been however; they were both fully grown despite the fact Silverus was younger.

"I don't get it. What in Arceus' name did I do to make you _this_ angry?" Silverus queried with a mix of worry and frustration, staring at him as directly as he could. Lugia had always acted rationally and calmly in almost any situation they had been in, and it was tormenting how unusually silent and cryptic he was being.

For the first time in a good while, Lugia turned around and glared his smaller brother in the eye, still frowning bitterly.

"Hmm... _I don't know_. Maybe the fact that you almost killed yourself?" he growled, his wings dug into his hips as he approached.

"The fact that you seem to think that everything is some _game_?" he continued.

"And the fact that I am here fighting the battles _we _should be fighting _together_ and you only care about your own!?" he shouted, looming over Silverus with rage flaming in his eyes. Silverus looked up at him meekly, firstly in fear of his brother's loud voice, then glaring back at him in retort.

"And _you _are just jealous of what I can do!" he snapped back, standing as tall as he could next him.

Lugia simply looked at him, silent and and with a mixed expression of shock and anger. Growling in frustration as if expecting a response, Silverus firmly pushed him aside with one wing and stormed off into the darkness of the cave where he stood, looking at the floor listlessly.

"...did you do it?" Lugia asked out of the blue, a calmer tone in hus voice as he stared in his brother's direction. He did not turn.

"What?" Silverus replied irritably.

"_The Limit_. Did you make it?"

Looking up, Silverus turned around and faced him again, his eyes gentler than before.

"Yes... I did. At least I think I did. The boom was hard to miss." he said, chuckling slightly at his last remark.

Lugia walked over to him and sighed deeply. He couldn't hate his brother.

"I'm glad you finally managed it... and I'm sorry."

With this Lugia opened his wings, prompting Silverus to embrace him tightly, resting his silver beak on his shoulder smiling.

"But you _have_ to be careful, brother. The world is a dangerous place; I don't want to lose you to it." Lugia calmly, yet slightly sternly.

Silverus released for a moment and looked his brother in the eye, clutching his wings tightly. He could always trust Lugia to be there for him.

"I should be the one apologising. I should never have taken that risk." he said sadly, staring downwards for a moment.

With this, Lugia smiled and patted him gently on the shoulder, letting him go and looking over to the light streaming in from the cave's mouth. His brother was reckless - no doubt - but he was also a caring, kind soul. The combination of these two traits only made him more protective. He turned back to him.

"Fancy a swim? You must be starving!" he joked, grinning at him intently. Silverus laughed and began to run, passing Lugia as he spread his wings towards the ocean ahead of him.

"I'm already there!"

_Always enthusiastic..._ Lugia thought as he rushed to keep up with him. What harm could some time with his brother do, anyway?

In the murky, twilight depths of the ever flowing ocean, a school of Magikarp scattered wildly. Behind them, the dark silhouettles of two legendary birds floated towards them. Silverus was suddenly distracted by the fish, his eyes darting in their direction before he grunted in light-hearted annoyance.

"Damn! Didn't see them." he complained to Lugia, who simply smirked at him in return.

"What's this?" he replied sarkily, "The all powerful Silverus at last admits a mistake?"

Glaring at him with humour, he then closed his eyes, exhaling his breath in a flurry of bubbles as he focused once again. _The water doesn't matter..._ he thought, summoning his psychic power once more. His eyes were glowing bright blue again as he felt the energy surge through his wings. He didn't enjoy swimming as much as flying - despite being adapted for both - but it still gave him quite the rush when he put his power to the test. Soon he had bolted off to the deep, leaving Lugia in the dust. His brother instead opted to swim unaided as he followed him, preferring the feel of water streaming past his feathers.

_Snap_. Another unfortunate 'karp came too close to Silverus' sharp beak as he snatched it from the blue and swallowed it whole. That was number three, though he knew he could not have bested his brother. Lugia had always been the master of hunting underwater, despite Silverus' superiority in the air.

Using his psychic essence, he could breathe almost indefinitely underwater with no need to waste time coming to the surface for air. _Almost_, as using it drained him; he couldn't keep it up forever, despite having learnt through years of practice to effectively summon his energy. Lugia however had _never_ relied on it. How he managed to do all these things as well as he could without-

_Gulp_. Silverus tasted water momentarily before choking loudly. _Not again._ Panicking, he flapped frantically upwards to reach the surface, trying his best to ignore the liquid now pooling in his lungs. In what felt like hours he emerged from the surface and flopped onto a nearby beach, his body limp as he inhaled deeply. Rolling over, he noticed a familiar figure standing there once again, looking at him disappointingly.

Silverus didn't want to hear it.

"I got _distracted_, Lugia. You know that I'm capable-"

Lugia wasted no time in being blunt.

"You rely on your essence too much." he said, raising his wing.

Silverus rolled his eyes and groaned again, pulling himself to his feet and looking away. Would he ever get a break?

At this, Lugia frowned, his tone once again becoming serious.

"One day, you're going to get yourself into a hole you cannot escape from." he snapped, prompting Silverus to stop and sigh for a moment as he looked down at the shallow waters ahead of him.

"I know, Lugia..." he murmured, having been through this countless times before.

He turned to look his brother in the eye, pointing at himself as he did so.

"But this is just... _me_. I can't change who I am."

Lugia paused for a moment before sighing deeply.

"Silverus... you are young. As time goes by you'll realise things change and sometimes, you have to change with them." he said gently, coming close to him and resting a wing on his shoulder.

As much as he didn't want to hear it, when he thought about it there was certainly sense in his brother's words. The calming of the Great Storm, the taming of of the Whirl Islands' legendary birds - if anyone had the experience to speak from, it was Lugia.

Silverus perked a smile.

"Whatever happens, I'll be there for you." Lugia reassured, smiling back.

A deep, telepathic voice suddenly reverberated through their minds.

"Lugia, Silverus... there has been a... dimensional disturbance." it droned with a wary tone. It was Dialga, the Pokémon of Space.

Lugia's eyes quickly furrowed as he looked up in thought. Whenever _Dialga_ spoke to them, especially over such long distances, something serious was happening.

"Understood. We're on our way." he said dutifully, raising his wings for flight. Silverus followed without question.


	3. III: Disturbance

Lugia paced the dimly lit tower in a solemn manner, taking a second occasionally to rub his wings together anxiously.

"So... you're saying that you can't guard the dimensions?" he said sternly, a frown upon his face.

Behind him, a quadripedal, blue dragon-like Pokémon's deep crimson eyes glowed brightly as it stared forward, focused in thought. Telepathically, it grunted in some degree of irritation.

"It is not that I cannot _guard_ them. It's simply a matter of _control_." it murmured.

Silverus, who was standing at the tower's entrance, listened with one ear as he stared out at the ocean far off in the distance. The Temporal Tower's location had always provided some pretty incredible views, floating on a mound of rocks thousands of feet above the mainland. It was not the first time they had been here. Many of the legendaries had a duty to attend to each other's territories, such as Dialga's, in times of need; his father had always told him that all nature was connected, and it was only as strong as its weakest link. He could see the logic in that.

"How so?" Lugia replied, turning to look at Dialga again who, underneath his head armour, appeared to be under a good degree of stress. He sighed.

"I am the god of Time, _not_ Space. That is Palkia's role - my counterpart." he said, his eyes glowing bright as a similarly-coloured holographic projection formed in front of him.

In a few seconds, it had materialised into an image of a similar-looking being to himself, except bipedal with two small wings protruding from its upper back. Lugia studied it for a moment before lifting his head in acknowledgement. He had remembered learning of Palkia in the past, but as it was common knowledge that he spent most of his time residing in his own dimension, he remained an elusive figure to even the keenest of eyes.

"My apologies, I don't think him and I have met so far." he said with some degree of embarassment.

"Do not worry," Dialga replied resentfully, "The last time he emerged from that pit of his was two centuries ago."

Out of the handful of times Lugia had dealt with the gods of Time and Space, one thing that had been clear was the intense animosity between them. He figured that both their domains would clash frequently given their nature, so it made sense. It dig beg the question however: exactly how much much of the universe's chaos was a result of this age-old rivalry?

"Is this is Palkia's doing, then?" Lugia queried with a serious tone.

Dialga sighed and looked at the tiled floor in dispair.

"No." he said quietly, closing his eyes for a moment.

"As much as I would wish to avoid admitting this, I truly believe something terrible has happened to him. He is a god, like I - for all his flaws he would always uphold his duties provided he could facilitate them."

At this, Silverus perked up immediately and looked back at the pair in some degree of surprise, pausing for a moment before hurriedly making his way over. Something severe happening to one of the elemental gods was never good news.

Lugia's eyes were also agape as he bit his tongue.

"...to _Palkia_? The god of Space?"

Dialga's eyes stopped glowing and the projection in front of them dissipated into thin air.

"Yes," he answered, "an unsettling thought even for me."

Before he could continue, Silverus arrived at the scene, wasting no opportunity to also speak up.

"I'll find him." he suggested with enthusiasm. This simply prompted Lugia to frown and look at him directly.

"Brother... no. " he instructed before Dialga continued, turning to look at both of them.

"I have reason to believe he's in another dimension - the Alternatum."

Lugia frowned again and looked at Dialga as he took a moment to think.

"That's the human dimension, correct?" he asked.

Dialga nodded slowly, the dark blue scales on his head glinting in the light.

"As you may colloquially know it, yes. It is a dimension without Pokémon; where the humans do not live alongside their fellow species sustainably." he sighed, a stoic expression across his face.

Lugia shook his head sadly. He had only heard myths and legends of the Alternatum, an alternate dimension where the humans were slowly killing their world through greed and overpopulation. It was a hostile world for anyone or anything, and if Palkia himself truly was trapped there, dark times were ahead.

All the more reason to make sure he didn't lose Silverus to it either.

After concluding this thought, he turned to his brother irritably.

"Does that sound like a place you would wish to be, Silverus?" he snapped.

Silverus simply stared back.

"It's not a place Palkia wished to be, yet there he is, alone and helpless." he retorted in a vein of annoyance.

Lugia huffed for a moment before continuing, pointing at his brother commandingly.

"I will _not_ let you put yourself at such incredible risk. Someone else can handle whatever needs to be done." he said, looking at Dialga again as if expecting some sort of input.

Dialga grunted back at him.

"Unfortunately, you are missing a key point in this instance..." he explained, "...without Palkia, there is no simple method of creating a portal to the Alternatum."

Lugia sighed and remained quiet, not sure what to suggest, prompting Dialga to continue.

"To create a bridge between two dimensions without the direct manupilation of space, one would require an enormous amount of energy. This would need to be combined with a signficant disturbance of matter - for example, molecular such as a high-intensity shockwave."

Silverus' eyes immediately lit up as he connected the dots in his head.

"Like a sonic shockwave?" he asked boldly.

Lugia instantly knew what he was suggesting.

"Enough!" he angrily bellowed, causing even Dialga to flinch slightly.

He quickly raised his wing in his brother's direction and fumed.

"You are far too inexperienced to venture into such an unknown, Silverus! _Anything_ could go wrong!" he yelled.

This simply prompted Silverus to stand as tall as he could and retort with frustration.

"You don't even know why we're here Lugia, yet you're _already_ trying to bring me down like you always do!", he shouted, pointing at Dialga, "Have you even considered why Dialga asked us, _personally_? There must be something from us he needs."

Dialga was quick to clarify.

"Your brother is correct. If the solution to this problem were simple, Arceus himself would have been able to assist me." he explained.

Lugia's expression became that of astonishment for a moment, before staring at Dialga in the eye. Arceus was the god of all Pokémon, even Dialga. If _Arceus_ couldn't come up with a solution, it was understandable that Dialga would turn to them instead in desperation.

"_Arceus_... couldn't help?" he murmured.

Dialga shook his head and looked to the floor solemnly.

"As soon as I reported Palkia's disappearance to him he wasted not a moment in pursuit. Due to having control over space, as he does every other physical element, he also tried to create a portal to the Alternatum..."

Dialga's eyes glowed once more, and another hologram appeared in front of them; this time of Arceus himself, a great white and gold stallion, focusing a ball of energy above his forehead. In a few seconds, it was released... before quickly dissipating into thin air.

"Unfortunately, no matter how much effort he could muster, he was not able to sustain the portal for long enough to pass through safely." he explained.

"While Arceus certainly has the ability to manipulate space, without Palkia present in his cosmic role to keep a close eye on the stability to the space-time continium, the fabric of space itself became too chaotic to form a tunnel which could be passed through safely."

Pausing for a moment, he turned to Silverus.

"I am no stranger to your... _impressive_ psychic abilities, Silverus." he remarked, prompting Lugia to look at him disapprovingly and butt in.

"And how do you know that, exactly?"

Dialga was quick to retort with some degree of annoyance.

"I am a god, Lugia. You would be wise to observe that fact."

Lugia could make no response to this, taken back by the remark as he decided it was probably best to listen to someone else than himself for once. After hearing silence, Dialga continued again.

"Breaking 'The Limit', as you may call it, would produce a sonic shockwave sufficient to maintain a dimensional portal long enough for one to traverse it." he explained, turning to Silverus again as he did so.

"And, by entering it with your psychically charged wings, you could resist the enormous gravitational pressure within and leave the other side unscathed."

Silverus' eyes quickly lit up again as he listened, the thought of such a challenge firing him up as it always did. Somebody was finally seeing his potential.

Of course, Lugia was having none of it as he frowned at Dialga, disappointed that he was encouraging him.

"Come on brother, we're leaving." he said, clearly upset as he reached out for his brother's wing in an effort to pull him away.

But Silverus didn't want to be bossed around any longer. Quickly moving his wing, he frowned in determination, not giving his brother a single glance as he looked to the sky beyond them.

Now he had a goal, and it was time to prove himself.

Kicking off with furious power, he shot forward, leaving the the shelter of the tower within a second. He channeled all his energy into his wings as they glowed brightly once more.

"_Silverus!_" a voice cried out behind him. Lugia could not match his brother's reflexes, and instead began running towards the edge of the tower in panic, vigorously flapping his wings as he finally lifted off the ground to persue him.

Dialga, after observing the whole scene from his place in the tower, simply hoped that he hadn't bitten off more than he could chew.


	4. IV: The Alternatum

Unimaginably bright light burned into Silverus' eyes as the portal closed in around him as quickly as it had opened, forcing him to close his eyes instinctively. He immediately began to feel himself being tossed around forcibly as bolts of energy arced onto and around his blue, glowing wings, jolting him in every direction as they did so.

_Psychic_. That's all he had to focus on. Provided he maintained his power to the best of abilities, he might get through this thing in one piece.

Opening his eyes again, he was surprised to see the blinding light had vanished. Instead, a long and winding tunnel shining in all colours stretched out in front of him, passing by rapidly as he was carried along through it at enormous speed. Its walls were smooth and evenly rounded, seeming to change in shape when looked at with a different angle, the light eminating from them refracting in a strange way at the same time. He guessed these were the extreme gravitational affects Dialga had explained; he could certainly feel their immense force on his wings as they glowed dimmer every now and then, clearly taking fire to withstand it. He dreaded to think what would happen if he were to lose his focus now. And no matter how he tried to move, they held him firmly in place, following the centre of the tunnel.

He was along for the ride.

No sooner had this thought left his mind did a tiny pinprick of light appear at the end, far off in the distance. He squinted to get a better view as it steadily began to increase in size and intensity. He closed his eyes again in anticipation as the light quickly surrounded him as before.

This was it.

In an instant, the light disappeared in a loud _bang_ as he suddenly began to tumble. Opening his eyes again, a spinning image of blue and green filled his vision as the roar of wind reverberated through his ears. He was falling...

He was _falling_!?

Gasping as he suddenly snapped back to his senses, he instinctively spread out his wings. The familiar feeling of lift quickly filled them as he levelled out, finally able to see what was ahead of him. Too little, too late.

Having barely time to react, Silverus quickly stretched his feet out in front of him as he slammed tail first into the grassy hill ahead, leading him to flip head over heels down the slope. In the frantic confusion he reached forward with his wings, leading them to dig into the ground and cause him to slide forward with his beak in the dirt, bringing him quickly to a halt.

Silverus opened his eyes groggily and groaned as a strong ache began to pound within what seemed like every muscle in his body.

"Ouch..." he thought out loud, taking a moment to look his muddied wings and tail over for any injury, his feathers ruffled and matted from the experience. Surprisingly, he'd made it out with just a few cuts and bruises. It was just lucky he hadn't hit the _other_ side of that hill.

If Arceus hadn't suddenly appeared and opened that portal at the last minute... Silverus dreaded to ponder his fate. He couldn't have taken a greater risk, and this time he didn't need his brother to tell him that.

Grunting, he steadily got himself back on his feet as he looked around at his new surroundings. In front of him, a great wooded valley stretched off into the distance, a sparkling river meandering down its base as it flowed downstream. Around it, a collection of shining white structures stood tall as they glinted in the sunlight, surrounded by an expansive forest of smaller, darker ones that seemed to spread for miles.

_A human city_. At least, how Lugia had described it to him before. He had never seen one in person, his brother always making sure they remained as far away from humans as possible in their Whirl Islands territory. While this was more for _their_ safety back in their own dimension, in the Alternatum he had good reason to believe the opposite was the case. It was crucial he remained undercover.

Realising he was exposed, Silverus pushed back with his wings, gliding at low altitude towards towards the forest nearby to plan his next move.

~~~

"_Arrrghhh_!" Lugia shouted, driving his fist into the cliff-face beside, causing it to rumble noticeably from the impact. Panting, he looked towards the sand beneath him and closed his eyes with despair.

How could he let Silverus, his own _brother_, do such a thing? How could he let this happen?

A gentle gust of wind washed over him from behind. Lugia was too obsessed with his own thoughts to pay much attention.

"I am sorry for going against your will, Guardian..." a deep, wise voice spoke, prompting Lugia to sigh solemnly before turning around to face the interruption. It was no less than Arceus himself, his deep red-green eyes glowing even in the bright sunlight.

Lugia stared at him, almost desperately with a clear look of pain across his face.

"Why did you do it?" he asked him hopelessly.

Arceus sighed, closing his eyes with some degree of guilt.

"It had to be..." he said reluctantly.

"Palkia's disappearance _will_ be catastrophic for the universe. There is no escaping that fact." he forewarned, "Once we learnt that Silverus had the unique set of abilities needed to reach the Alternatum, we had to seize the opportunity and prevent that reality at all costs."

Lugia looked down again.

"It may be our _only_ chance, Lugia." he reiterated.

There was certainly sense to his words, and in his heart Lugia knew Arceus was right. But Silverus was his _brother_. They were family. And that made made this no easier to deal with.

Lugia took a deep breath, wiping away a single tear from his eye as he looked back up at Arceus again.

"Just understand, Arceus, that I would do _anything_ to protect him. He is more capable than any of us could imagine - just young and inexperienced." he warned.

Arceus nodded, seemingly non-phased by Lugia's slight bluntness.

"That I precisely why I entrusted him with this immense responsibility. More than anyone, _I_ would not levy such responsibility lightly." he noted, attemping a rare figment of humour.

Lugia managed to force a small smile as he nodded back, appreciating Arceus' positive words. The god turned around slowly, pausing for a moment to look back at him.

"Hold onto your faith, Guardian, and trust in him. He has a powerful heart, and I truly believe he will pull through." he said, before levitating once more, "Farewell..."

With this, he floated forward and off into the distance until Lugia could see him no more.

Lugia sighed again and, raising his wings for flight, looked up to the sky. He could almost see his brother's face among the wispy clouds

_Stay safe, brother. We need you more than ever._


End file.
